Their sex lives have always been an uncomfortable topic of conversation. Now the disabled are determined that we listen and learn. What are they able to teach the rest of us about sexual fulfilment?

When he first saw Anne it was in 30C Kenyan heat and he was drawn to her tall, slender frame, her smile and that flicker in her eyes. Norman made her laugh with a bad joke after noticing her callipers. Though his humour was a little off-colour they talked all night, and by sunrise this encounter - 10 years ago at a charity-work barbecue in Machakos, Kenya - was the start of a traditional courtship between two very different people: a black disabled teacher from western Kenya and a white ex-miner from Newcastle.

They were living 300 miles apart, volunteering in disadvantaged schools. With no telephones, they would send each other love letters, and when they were together, they slept in separate rooms. Once married, their romance would see Anne Wafula Strike become a Paralympian wheelchair-racer, a model, a motivational speaker and, perhaps most significantly, a mother.